She had changed her phone to an unlisted number but he had Phyllis’, so he had called her business manager constantly. Threatened. Cajoled. But Phyl, bless her soul, had simply told him she would pass along the messages. She had never given him her address.
The apartment was not under her current legal name. She had leased it under the name Samantha Drake. Drake had been her stepfather’s name. She hadn’t legally changed her name back to Hastings until she had begun writing the series.
He would never find her unless she wanted to be found and, right at the moment, she didn’t.
“What are we gonna do, sweetie?” She rubbed her face with numb hands and shook her head. “I hoped he would learn to love me. He was only interested in a thrilling bed partner. Hell, I shouldn’t be telling you all this. You’re way too young to have to deal with man-woman problems.” She lifted her eyes to see Snowball yawning at her from across the room.
The cat sauntered slowly across the carpet to leap lightly onto her knees and settle down in her lap, purring loudly. Sam smiled at him and rubbed his ears. “Sorry about being nasty, sweetie. I just miss him so damn much.”
The cat gave a capacious yawn and licked his fur carefully. A moment later, he was licking her hand and purring even more loudly. She grinned at him and said softly, “You always know how to talk me out of the doldrums, sweetie.”
But now she had to figure out how to get her life back on track. Alone. Without some sex-crazed hunk dragging her into bed every time she turned around. Damn. She clenched her fists to keep from reaching for the frigging phone for the twentieth time today. What a wuss. Why the hell was it so damn hard to get through a day without a man fix? She felt like a recovering addict.
But recovering from an addiction to David Chance was not going to be easy. He ran through her thoughts and dreams every time she closed her eyes or tried to sleep. At times she could almost feel his lips on her skin, his hands on her body. She would drop off to sleep and come awake a few hours later after having had the most amazingly sensuous dreams-wild, orgasmic dreams that made her crazy to just hear the sound of his voice again. Even after over two months, she could still remember the scent of his flesh, the feel of his smooth, hot skin sliding against hers as he made love to her.
She shook herself back to reality and bit her lip. No. She had to get him out of her system. Out of her dreams.
Fat chance of that.
“When the hell are you gonna just go up there and drag her ass back here?” Victor Mulvayne frowned at him from across the room as he poured himself a large brandy.
“I don’t think she wants to come back. I pretty well blew it.” David’s dark eyes were on the gas log in the large fireplace.
“Have you even talked to her?”
“She changed her cell number. I never knew her address, only that she lives in Cleveland. Can’t find any record of her renting or buying anywhere in Cleveland. Believe me, I’ve had a man looking for her since she left.” His teeth were clenched. “She won’t even answer the fucking phone when her business manager hands it to her. Except once. She told me to take a flying leap and to leave her the fuck alone.” His frown was introspective.
Yvonne turned to him from the window and sauntered over to the side of his chair, placing her long-nailed hand on his shoulder. “You have absolutely got to be the biggest jackass I’ve ever met, except for Vic.”
David jerked his eyes to her face in confusion. “What the hell did I do now?”
She shook her head and exhaled loudly. “Can you draw this asshole a picture, Vic? He is blind and stupid, all rolled up into one!”
David glanced in irritation at Victor and was about to ask what the hell his wife was talking about but Vic cut off his question with a raised hand.
“Y’s right, Chance. We’ve been wanting to talk to you but the schedule’s been so damn hectic and you have been in such a fucking black mood, nobody dared try. It’s been almost three months since she took off and you’ve been wandering around like a grizzly bear with an ingrown toenail. What the hell is wrong with you? You never took no for an answer from anyone else. Why start now? Find her. Break down her business manager’s fucking door and strangle her ’til she tells you what you need to know!” He glared at David.
“She left because she didn’t want to be around me, dammit. She hates my fucking guts!” He took a swallow of his drink.
Vic shook his head and groaned. “Anybody with any brains in their damn thick skull could have told you that Sam Hastings was so gone over you, she could barely think straight when you were turning on that goddamn charm.”
David glared at him malevolently. “What the hell do you know about it? If she was ‘gone’ over me, I would have known it, wouldn’t I?”
Yvonne threw up her hands and gave a strangled little sound of disgust. “Does a goddamn brick have to hit you in that thick skull of yours before you recognize when a woman is in love? Or is it that you just couldn’t love her back? Was that it? So you didn’t bother to follow her and make things right for her?” She almost snarled at him. “Did you even think to offer her marriage?”
David’s eyes widened at her words. He’d offered her himself! Wasn’t that the same fucking thing? Did their Memorandum of Understanding not make her realize he needed her? Wanted her? Yvonne’s angry voice intruded in his thoughts.
“She was willing to jump into a ring and physically attack a man four times her size when she thought you were in danger, you fucking jerk. Didn’t that ring any bells in your fucking head? And whenever you started to make a total jackass of yourself, she always stepped in and turned you back into a human being again.”
She shook her head and stared at him like he was a bug on her carpet. “When I think of all the things that girl did to make you know she adored you, I get sick to my stomach. I have no idea why she ever agreed to live with you, Chance, but you tossed away the most precious thing that ever happened to you and you have nobody to blame but yourself, so pull your head out of your fucking ass and start using it!”
David stared up into her angry face and he was about to deliver a blistering set down, when Sam’s soft voice whispered in the back of his thoughts. I’d much rather manipulate you than let that black temper of yours spoil a good working relationship.
He drew a deep breath and swallowed his anger. Love him? Did Sam really love him? He rose from the chair and stared at his friend’s angry face. “Yvonne, has anyone ever told you you’re beautiful?” And he caught the back of her head and kissed her quickly, startling her.
“I’d start by walking into her business manager’s office and busting heads until they cough her up. It shouldn’t be that much trouble.” Her eyes were a brilliant ice blue. “And if she doesn’t want to come back, get on your goddamn hands and knees and promise her the earth if you have to.”
He placed his empty glass on the coaster and left without another word. The truth in what they had told him hit him in the gut like a fist. He had known she wanted him. That she loved what he did for her in bed. But he had not noticed the other things she seemed to love about him. The way she humored him when he was pissed off and the way she always made him forget to be angry when tensions rose. The way she stood up for him against the press when they made comments she didn’t like. The way she looked at him when she thought he wasn’t aware. The light that came into her green eyes when she saw him after even a short absence. The way she got pissed off at him when he came home battered and the way she gently cared for his cuts and bruises.
She didn’t hate him. So there was hope.
He flagged down a passing taxi and climbed inside, giving his address. The driver watched him for a while until he looked up and met the brown eyes in the rear view mirror. The man waited for him to acknowledge him with a nod and then he said in heavily accented English, “I have not seen your little woman for a long time on the television. She is not ill, I hope. My wife and me, we watch because she is so brave and so pretty. My daughter wants to be just like her someday.”